A systemwide test for all students in California public colleges
to ensure they are meeting the state legislature’s
expectations could be on the horizon if legislators and academics
can decide on the format.
A new Master Plan for Education in California released by a
committee in the state legislature recommends that
“California’s colleges and universities should work
collaboratively to develop a means of assessing the learning of
students” in college.
But the plan does not say what that assessment should cover, how
it would be administered, and whether students must pass to earn
their degree.
“We have been trying to figure out what exactly they
meant,” said University of California press aide Brad
Hayward.
This recommendation is a part of the master plan, which was
approved by a state legislative committee after four years of
work.
The report recommends that students should be tested on skills
learned in general education, including communication skills,
critical thinking and using technology.
As of now, the report’s recommendations do not need to be
followed.
The next step in defining an assessment will come if the
legislature creates a bill to make such an assessment into law.
Once a law is introduced, the university will discuss any
concerns it has with legislators, Hayward said.
Ideally the UC, California State University and California
Community Colleges would decide on a common assessment, said
Charles Ratliff, a consultant for the Master Plan Committee.
Their assessment would then need to be approved by the
legislature.
The Master Plan Committee started by assuming that all three
systems require common general education content areas, although
not necessarily common course requirements, Ratliff said.
He added that professors would have to agree on a common core
content for courses for assessments, with about 80 percent of a
course’s content being the same from professor to
professor.
The Academic Senate ““ the association of UC tenure-track
faculty ““ has concerns about forming a common curriculum all
professors would have to abide by, said Gayle Binion, systemwide
Academic Senate chair.
“Academia by nature is very diverse,” Binion said.
“One of the great things about our institution is that
different professors may teach a course in different
ways.”
The university already evaluates students earning a degree
through their courses and further testing may not be possible, she
added.
It is also debatable whether the state’s three systems
have a common curriculum to base a test on, Hayward said.
A norm-referenced test ““ a test of specific knowledge,
like a multiple-choice exam ““ would not work said
Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, chair of the assembly’s
higher education budget committee.
“Skills such as the ability to think and write can’t
be tested,” Liu said. “They are what we desire, not yes
or no answers.”
The recommendation for assessments “is all a cry for
accountability” from within the legislature, Liu said.
Members of the legislature want to know that the state’s
$12 to $13 billion annual investment in higher education is being
used wisely, she added.